BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 24, 2020)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG BLOG: Is Your Austin Firm "Essential Critical" Under Shelter In Place ? (LINK TO BLOG POST)
BG PODCAST EPISODE 79- Texas Hemp Policy Update with Marissa Patton, Associate Legislative Director, Texas Farm Bureau (LINK TO SHOW)
[AUSTIN METRO]
'We Need To Act Fast,' Travis County Judge Eckhardt Says, Ahead Of Shelter-In-Place Order (KUT)
Stay-at-home orders are expected to be issued in the City of Austin, Travis County and Williamson County on Tuesday in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. The orders would require all nonessential businesses to have employees work from home and further restrict other gatherings.
Businesses with essential functions – like grocery stores – would be exempt, as would government functions and critical infrastructure.
“We have a very short window to really affect COVID-19’s expansion through our community,” Eckhardt said. “The longer we wait, the more acute the spike will be, so we need to act fast in really decreasing the circulation of people in our community.”
Eckhardt's remarks mirror those from Austin Mayor Steve Adler earlier in the day, when he also signaled such an order would be coming.
She said the orders could be in place for two to three weeks…
City Council to vote on anti-eviction ordinance Thursday (Austin Monitor)
City Council will vote Thursday on establishing a 60-day grace period for renters in an emergency ordinance released Monday. The ordinance, which is sponsored by Council members Greg Casar, Kathie Tovo, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza and Mayor Steve Adler will create a two-month grace period before eviction proceedings can begin due to nonpayment of rent.
Casar announced the proposed ordinance during a Facebook Live Monday.
“The pandemic has exposed the stresses in our society,” said Casar. “We already had so many tenants that were having trouble paying rent before the pandemic. And now things are obviously so much more devastatingly worse.”
“The city on its own can’t just waive people’s rent. … One thing we can do is to buy people the time that they need so that they aren’t worried their small business is going to get evicted in the month of April, so people don’t worry that they will lose their home if they don’t pay rent because they’ve lost wages or lost their job.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Eckhardt to stay past resignation to help with Travis County’s coronavirus response (Austin American-Statesman)
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt’s will stick around for up to eight more months to help lead the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she told the American-Statesman on Monday.
Eckhardt, the county’s top government official and a key decision maker in the area’s efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, announced two weeks ago she was stepping down to run for a seat on the Texas Senate that opened unexpectedly when Austin Democrat Kirk Watson resigned. Former County Judge Sam Biscoe agreed to take over for Eckhardt until voters picked a permanent replacement in November. He had originally planned to take an oath of office on Monday.
But as the public health crisis intensified and positive cases for the coronavirus began popping up in the Austin area, Eckhardt decided not to leave her responsibilities with the county just now. As of last count Monday, there were 86 known cases in Travis County.
“It’s a pandemic and on the 10th of March things looked different than they do today on the 23rd,” Eckhardt said.
Eckhardt will continue to hold all of the powers of a county judge until Biscoe takes an oath of office around the May 13 filing deadline for the Senate race. Biscoe then will appoint Eckhardt to an emergency management position that she will keep until the November general election. She might leave earlier if the county commissioners decide her help no longer is needed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says a failing economy is worse than coronavirus (Texas Tribune)
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chiming in to support President Donald Trump's new focus on the economy over fierce warnings from public health officials, suggested on Fox News on Monday night that he would rather die from the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus than see instability in the American economic system.
"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in," he said. "And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that.
"I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me ... that what we all care about and what we all love more than anything are those children," he added. "And I want to, you know, live smart and see through this, but I don't want to see the whole country to be sacrificed, and that's what I see."... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As restaurants across Texas shut down their dining rooms, 1 million service industry jobs are on the line (Dallas Morning News)
Thousands of Dallas service industry workers are facing sudden unemployment in the wake of this week’s mandatory city-wide shutdown of all restaurant dining rooms and bars. And hundreds of thousands more restaurant industry workers around Texas will be out of work as the statewide closure of all restaurant dining rooms went into effect Friday. According to the Texas Restaurant Association, the restaurant shutdowns in Dallas and Harris counties alone will have a projected loss of up to half a million jobs in the state’s restaurant industry.
“Small restaurants operate with razor thin margins [1 to 2 percent], leaving them highly susceptible to minor impact, let alone catastrophic impact such as the COVID-19 crisis,” according to a report from the association. “The Texas Restaurant Association projects 25 to 30 percent of independent restaurants will close if the reduction in patrons continues.” There are 1.4 million people employed in the Texas restaurant industry, and with restrictions in place, 1 million of those jobs could be lost, the report said. Many restaurants are frantically restructuring staff and menus to offer takeout and delivery services that are still permitted under the mandate, but without dining room service, most have had to cut or furlough staff. On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of workers employed by Headington Companies, the group behind The Joule and a dozen bars or restaurants throughout Dallas including Sassetta, CBD Provisions and Commissary, were terminated via email, according to Central Track… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Abbott’s order prohibits abortions during coronavirus disaster (San Antonio Express-News)
Gov. Greg Abbott has moved to halt abortions in the state, an effort his office says will free up critical medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. In a statewide order Sunday, Abbott postponed all elective surgeries as a means to conserve medical supplies needed by hospitals to combat the spread of COVID-19. Under the directive, hospitals can’t perform surgeries unless the patient faces an immediate risk for “serious adverse medical consequences or death, as determined by the patient's physician.” Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office confirmed in a statement Monday that the prohibition applies to “any type of abortion that is not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.”
The office said failure to comply could result in penalties of up to $1,000 or 180 days of jail time. “We must work together as Texans to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that our health care professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time,” Paxton said. The move follows a similar decision on Friday by Ohio’s attorney general, and has sparked a fierce backlash from abortion proponents. “Reproductive health care is essential health care,” the Texas Freedom Network said in a statement. “There are many reasons women decide to have an abortion in the already limited time window state law allows, and a delay means denying them the constitutional right to make those decisions in a safe, timely manner with the help of their doctors.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Mnuchin, Schumer brief Trump, expect coronavirus stimulus deal Tuesday (The Hill)
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin say they briefed President Trump late Monday night on a forthcoming massive stimulus agreement and predicted they would finalize the deal Tuesday.
"The president would like to have a deal and he's hopeful we can conclude this tomorrow," Mnuchin told reporters after leaving Schumer's office for the final time early Tuesday morning.
Schumer added that Mnuchin called the president during their meeting and they told him they were "very, very close to an agreement."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
With the real estate industry facing headwinds, SoftBank-backed Compass lays off 15% of staff (Tech Crunch)
Compass, the real-estate brokerage startup backed by roughly $1.6 billion in venture funding, has laid off 15% of its staff as a result of the shifting economic fortunes created by the global response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal email seen by TechCrunch.
Citing economic fallout that has seen stock markets plummet 30 percent in just 22 days, Compass chief executive Robert Reffkin wrote that the company has seen an over 60 percent decline in real estate showings and is modeling a six-month decline in revenue of 50 percent.
“We aren’t just facing an economic recession, we are facing an economic standstill,” Reffkin wrote. As the country’s unemployment rate soars to a projected 10 percent, Reffkin wrote that the company had no choice but to cut its workforce… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based full service lobbying firm representing and advising clients on municipal, legislative, and regulatory matters throughout Texas.
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